King For A Night
by The Dude Slayer
Summary: The long and winding road has led him home again. But will home welcome him?


King for a Night  
The Dude Slayer

A No Tomorrow Production  
A Ranma fanfic

* * *

Tokyo proper had been a month long nightmare of back alleys, wrong turns and one way streets. Weeks of once purposeful wandering, and the help of numerous friendly police officers, steered the Lost Boy in the direction of his final destination. A number of wrong trains and a distracted cabbie never deterred him from his intended destination. Nermia was eventually found, almost by accident, and with the oddly coincidental help of a Kuno he'd arrived.

All that separated the Wandering Warrior from his prize was a mere threshold. Yet a simple piece of wood and masonry it proved a powerful and effective deterrent, if only momentarily.

Cautiously he stepped into the bedroom he'd not seen recently. Was he still welcome here? Did she still want him? Did she still love him? These questions plagued him as he laid his bag to rest near the closet. The room, like the apartment, hadn't changed in the time he'd been gone, even the faded, frayed yellow bandana he kept by the bed was still waiting to be worn.

The door scuffed slightly on its track alerting the room's occupant that the other tenant was now behind him. Glass shattering as it hit floor was the only sound in the tiny apartment. Minutes of excruciating silence passed before she regained use of her body and threw herself into the strapping young man before her. With hands capable of shattering boulders, he lovingly caressed her body with a tenderness that seemed nearly unthinkable in his grasp.

"You're home?" Her voice is soft and tiny. She fears that this moment is just another dream, one that cannot be allowed to pass either person by. Slowly he pulls her closer to his body, knowing that as she relaxes her feminine curves will match the contours of his muscular body. With patience he feels her tension begin to slip into the ether. This time will be different; he feels it at the deepest part of his broken soul.

__

The snow lightly coats the city. A gentle white blanket that had taken more than a day to spread itself over Nermia was finally showing signs of laying itself to rest. As the wanderer stared out at the cold night a familiar thought crossing his mind: Where do I sleep tonight?

_ He knows that he has friends here, but he also knows that his finding any of them would be akin to spending the night alone in the cold. Even with the latest of the "Wrecking Crew's" current truces in place, he felt ill at ease begging boarding from any of them this night. The last thing he expected was a very feminine body pressing into his back and leaning heavily on him._

_ A contented sigh escaped the young woman as she rested against her friend. A tremor nearly tore through the young man but was instead forced down to a slight shiver._

_ "You make a good leaning post. Has anyone ever told you that before?" The smile was evident in her voice._

_ Casually she switched places with the wanderer and leaned back against the doorjamb. Her shapely legs crossed at the ankles, one hand behind her back the other resting casually on her hip. Long slender fingers grasp the door closing it solidly behind her. With a practiced ease her fingers turn the lock before reaching out and taking his impossibly strong hand in hers._

_ Looking into his wide astonished eyes she smiles seductively as only a woman with burning desire is capable. Pushing herself from the door she leans against his chest, a familiar position now, then and forever; her teeth find his earlobe inviting and in need of a nibble. Her voice, usually calm and sweet drops and with a confident huskiness she whispers into his ear._

_ "I always felt the fool for picking Ranma over you."_

_ Her smiles pulls a little further at the corners of her lips. The seduction in her lips and eyes is momentarily replaced by a playfulness that she'd rarely shown before._

_ "I always told Akane that you were the best damn kisser I've ever found." She pulls him away from the door with the insistence of a woman in need._

The years had changed them both. Their bodies tempered by constant fights, their sharp tactile minds forged from battle, and vengeful souls filled with youthful abandon slowly drifted into childish pasts, but the fires that ran deep in their hearts could never be staved, only fed.

He held her close knowing she wanted to be in his arms and he wanted her there.

__

Daylight waited to shine until the moment he awoke, so it often seemed. The night had been long and tiring, but in ways that he knew to be most enjoyable, and would continue to be for ages to come. It seemed that when he slept in her_ bed he never missed a dawn, no matter how often they passed him by elsewhere._

_ His gaze slowly left the early spring morning and turned hungrily to his bed partner. This was not the first time he'd found himself naked and in her bed, and he hoped it would not be the last. There was no question now; he knew which roads he'd be taking from now on, and no matter the stops in between eventually all would lead back to this bed and the woman that resided here in._

She's scared, they both know it. It's been almost a year since he'd been "home," with the exception of her birthday and a few holidays he'd been completely out of touch with her and their mutual friends. Something that had not happened since he'd stopped waging his pointless feud with Ranma.

He held her close, but maintained a tiny distance between them, just enough that would allow leverage for either to reject the other. His once shattered glass heart was beginning to mend in her presence, the miniscule pieces once thought lost were slowly finding their way together again. Soon, maybe, the glass shards of his heart would find their way past the stone walls around the fractured heart in her chest. Someday a great stained glass heart could be formed from their love.

Standing here with the woman he loves, he feels his conscience clear. His war has been won; all his fights have been fought. He's in just the spot that makes his life seem like the final scene of some old movie he'd seen once. He may not be the prince, though he'd fought one once, he knows he's found his queen. Ranma can keep being the great hero and save the world, his villains always get what they deserve. He's grown tired of being someone's punching bag.

The Wandering One's finally got the right girl. It feels the perfect place and time. For once nothing hurts, nothing's broken, nothing's sore. No one in their lives needs to suffer anymore, least of all him. Ranma's jabs and prods no longer evoke the blind rage they once had. He has her and that's all he's needed for quite sometime. Their problems be damned, they'd work through them like the mature couple they'd grown into, not the crazed spoiled teens they once were so many years ago.

The time for fear and questions had long since passed. He pulls her into his arms, heedless of the destructive power they contain. Tightly he holds her to his body; he knows that this is where they'll always come back to no matter what happens.

Gradually his scarred and calloused hands found their way to the sides of her face. Lovingly he holds her cheeks and forces her to look deeply into his eyes. A conversation passes between their eyes with their lips finishing their non-verbal statements. As their kiss deepened, his hands left her face finding the familiar curves of her body; pulling her into him the way she'd long ago shown him how to hold her.

The pain was seeping away from both lovers. The mistakes of their pasts cast aside for the hopes of the future.

* * *

This all started as a songfic one night. It was originally going to be based off of a Great Big Sea song: "When I Am King" and a few of those elements are still here. A few drafts later, numerous corrections and fixes from my good buddy Krackah John and you now see the finished copy. This one, I'm actually quite proud of, even if the original story ran screaming into the night and left its mentally damaged cousin behind.

Shows what a little TLC, some late nights, and a few good friends can do.

This is fanfiction, so obviously I own none of these story points. Ryoga and all associated named and unnamed characters belong to Takahashi Rumiko and various companies that own the Ranma license. I make no profit on this and am not selling the obvious piece of fiction above.

Hope you enjoyed it. Leave me a message and tell me about it.

the_dude_slayer hotmail . com


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